Jude 1:8

Jude has reminded the false teachers about these terrible examples from the past. But the false teachers refuse to listen. They continue with their wicked behaviour.

• The *Greek word for ‘dreamers’ appears only once more in the *New Testament. In Acts 2:17, the word refers to a gift of the Holy Spirit to learn something about a future event. In the Septuagint (an early translation of the *Old Testament in the *Greek language), the word refers to people who falsely claim (pretend) to know about the future (Deuteronomy 13:2; Isaiah 56:10; Jeremiah 23:25). This is what the false teachers of Jude’s day are doing. They are pretending that their words are the truth. In verse 11, Jude suggests that the false teachers are like Balaam. They are even wanting people to pay them to learn their secret knowledge.

• In their foolish dreams, the false teachers have completely lost their sense of truth and reality. The false teachers continue to ruin their bodies. But it was God who created their bodies. So their bodies actually belong to God.

• The wrong use of sex was a well-known problem in the church from its earliest days (1 Corinthians 5:1; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Corinthians 12:21).

• The false teachers laugh at authority and they insult *angels. In other words, the false teachers refuse the message that *angels bring from God (Acts 7:38; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2).